The Tower Museums Of Alma Vii

Last month we visited the lovely medieval fortress of Alma Vii, situated on a hill above the village, which contains a wall surrounding the place, 4 towers (if I'm not mistaken) and the Evangelical church. You can check out my previous posts about the bell tower and granary tower and the Evangelical church.

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This is the church building, an impressive on as far as its size is concerned and I'm pretty sure back in its prime, it was lovely. Today it is restored (to some extent) to its original state, but there's still work to do to get it back to its beauty.

The village was first mentioned in 1298 in the „Herritus de Alma sacerdotes“ document; the social and historical context, however, shows Alma Vii exists most likely since the early 1200s, when German settlers come to the south of Transylvania for economic and military reasons.

Part of the village’s name seems to come from the Hungarian word for „apple”. On the other hand, it may be linked to Alma, the young wife to one of the guards of the citadel. The story tells she contributed to a significant victory against the Tatars. The name „Vii” reminds of vineyards that once covered the hills around the village.

In 1356 Alma Vii is mentioned as a free commune belonging to the town of Medias. During the same period the Evangelical church is built on a hilltop, North of the village.

In the sixteenth century fortifications were built around the Saxon church in Alma Vii so that it would never be conquered. The Saxons who lived here surrounded it with towers, firing posts and holes for throwing pitch on top of invaders. This way the church also became stronger in the face of weather elements and time. The first level of the bell tower used to be inhabitable and had a fireplace.

In 1523 King Louis II of Hungary exempted the villages from taxes for three years, after much of it had burned, along with other settlements in the area. In 1532, 57 households were registered in Alma Vii. source

With a simple camera you can only capture so much, but I suggest to watch this video, which is about the archeological works done during restoration and has some amazing aerial footage as well. Worth watching it.

Gate Tower

The towers were built in the 16th century, as the marble plate shows on the side of the tower.

There was this thing in front of the tower, I have no clue what it could be, your guess is good as mine, so please, if you know what it is, let me know.

This is the basement of the tower, or the ground floor, as you wish. It was set up as a cellar, with all the tools you need to make vine.

I'm sure this cupboard is not from the 16th century, but it's old and if it is from that region, it is good enough for me.

Another one and a barrel, that was used to store wine, which had a lot of value back in those days. The region is suitable for growing grapes and let's not forget, back in those days wine was not considered unhealthy alcoholic drink like today. Soldiers were paid in wine and they drank wine as others drink water, if they had any.

Candle holder, a very original idea.

According to the video I liked above, human remains were found here, buried in the ground, during the restoration works.

View from the first floor of the gate tower.

As I mentioned in my previous post, this place is definitely not for high heels and elegant clothes. Unlike at other similar places, there are no fancy stairs or elevator for the lazy ones that want to see the original site, but not ready to experience life as it was, when the fortress was built. The real experience is to see and learn what life was like in those times.

The room at the first floor is like a real museum, full or objects, documents and data that gives you an idea how they were living.

I took a photo of the description for you to read it. Please do as it's interesting and important too and let's continue the journey, come with me to show you the rest of the exhibition.

This is the barrel mentioned in the description, which showed you photos if you rotated the wheel. I did not do that as we spent an hour in this place already and was close to closing time. In any case, it's a great idea and unique solution as well.

A chariot wheel, made of wood, commonly used in those times as that was all they had.

Old, hand embroidered wall cloth, with a religious blessing. I'm not going to translate it, but I know from my grandfather (who was Saxon), that Grüß Gott is used to greet people, it means something like God bless you. He had a friend and they always greeted teach other with Grüß Gott and spoke Saxon.

I'm not sure if you can see it on the photo, how thick the wall is. That small window was used to shoot the enemy.

The traditional clothes of those times. These are original clothes, donations from the population of the village.

This was actually a heartbreaking scene. An old suitcase from those times and objects, photos, bibles that once belonged to real people. Memories. Those record were from the 40's.

Tools used by carpenters.

Memories of old times. I was looking at these photos wondering where those people are today.

I suppose this tool was used in the process of making thread out of wool.

The most interesting thing in the room was this. This was where the bacon ans sausages were used to hang during summer. These towers have very thick walls, therefore the temperature is much lower inside, even during hot summer days.

That tower is part of the church, we did not visit it.

You could cross from one tower to another, but it's not for faint hearted or for those who are afraid of heights. The beam floor is moving, so ...

These holes were used for defense purposes.

Ice Tower

The gate tower was dedicated to the Saxons entirely. The ice tower on the other hand was dedicated to the Hungarian culture.

This description speaks about the carved wooden gates from the Székely region. I had a post about those gates 3 days ago, so check them it if you are not familiar with those gates.

The other thing that the paper mentions is the handmade and hand painted pottery or Corund. I'm smiling widely now as I had a post about the pottery yesterday.

Look at the photo. An old lady is washing a young lady's hair, in a bawl. That's how it was done. There was no electricity, hair was dried at the fire. Give thanks to God you were not living then.

There were old photos pinned to those wooden boards, which seemed like an original idea as it looked good, gave the whole thing and old look. On the other hand, if those photos have not been scanned and digitalized with a high resolution, corrective scanner, then those photos will be done till the end of summer.

Look at this photo. Those women were sitting in front of the gate, in the street, working, making thread out of wool. Look at the road and the dirt. There was no paved road and rainy days made a lot of mud.

Look at that scale. I can't figure out if that's a sheep or just the wool. Most likely just the wool.

Processing wool. Again, thank God I wasn't born back then as I would have sneezed all day. I have an allergy, which I hate, so working with threads and fabrics is something I do with caution and with mask if possible.

The cellar or the basement was dedicated to the Romanian culture and as you can read above, these wooden panels were from the clock tower balustrade.

It was so dark inside you could not see anything, so I had to use the flash when took the photos.

Behind the fortress, there was this old building, that served as a school for the village. But with the decreasing number of kids, the school was moved down to the village. Imagine those kids had to climb the hill, rain or shine, each day to go to school.

Anyway, overall it was an experience I will never forget. You can not only learn about the local culture, but also see a unique setup you don't see everywhere. Setting up the towers as museum was an excellent idea.

If you're a newbie, you may want to check out these guides: